(Sunday, February 21, 2016)
A few days ago I visited Shanghai.
As part of a family trip to China in 2004, we spent some jet-lag-recovery time in Shanghai before going on to Chongqing for a nice trip down the Yangtze River. I had fond memories of that time in Shanghai and was eager to compare.
I got in late one night (see “In and Out of Shanghai”), spent that night in the same hotel we used in 2004, spent the entire next day walking about, and returned to the ship the next night. A short visit, but quite nice.
Shanghai is more polluted than it was in 2004. To be fair, we visited in summertime then, and it is winter now. I know, from having lived in Denver and other places, that sometimes wintertime is more difficult due to captured smog via temperature inversions, that sort of thing. It was noticeably hazy, and I could feel a slight headache that I think was due to pollution. Later, back at the docks, far away from the city center and with an ocean breeze, it felt a lot better, so I do think it was pollution and not just mist. A few people were wearing masks over their nose and mouth. Not many.
My hotel was right in the center of things, near Nanjing Road pedestrian way, and near the Bund.
The Bund is a long, wide, pedestrian parkway along one side of the Huangpu River that snakes through Shanghai. The Bund, and quite a few old (1930’s) financial buildings, line the west side of the river. Across the river are the new areas, with many very tall buildings, and a few buildings that, more than simply “very tall”, have each been “tallest in the world” at one time or another. This new area is the new financial center. Nanjing Road runs perpendicular to the Bund, on the west side of the river. Part of Nanjing Road is closed to traffic, making Nanjing Road a wide pedestrian walkway, with stores and attractions, between People’s Park (a nice inner-city park with a museum or two) on the west and the Bund and the river on the east.
My hotel was the Central Hotel Shanghai. Posh. It caters to international business people, and was way more than I needed but was a known quantity for me and that counted for a lot, especially arriving late at night. It felt exactly the same as it did when we were all there in 2004.
In the morning I walked first west on Nanjing Road, to its beginning, then walked the length of it to the Bund, stopping in some shops and sitting to watch others passing by every so often. It was a nice day for doing so, about 50F, sunny. Quite a few areas that, in 2004, were either still part of old-town Shanghai or were under construction, are now gone. The whole street is “finished”. And some of what was lost was some of what I liked about Nanjing Road.
In 2004 we met friends and relatives just outside our hotel, at a cafe with tables street-side. We had coffee, and I also remember a different “teriyaki chicken” than that which I was used to in the US. In 2016 I could find none of those places on Nanjing Road. I had to go down side streets, not a burden but different, to find something like that. On Nanjing Road itself were big storefronts of high-end vendors. Oh my, Singapore casino revisited, only bigger! It seems that in the intervening time Nanjing Road has gone upscale. There were places to get your Rolex or your Prada or your Polo, none of which I required.
There was a friendly looking new public area, kind of a semicircle of benches in front of a huge screen. On the screen in the morning while I walked by were some store ads, but I can imagine that this place is used for some fun stuff, like bands or something like that, at night, in warmer times or on the weekends. That was new, and not just upscale, so that felt good.
There were some police walking their beat down the street, looking serious, but not ominous. All black uniforms, trim, with “Police” in English and (I assume) Chinese on their back. Always two of them, and they walked one behind the other, not side-by-side. Not just one set, but several sets that I saw. That seemed unusual. I wonder if someone had decided that this technique was more effective than walking side by side. Again – not ominous, just noticeable.
There were a lot of electric bicycles, electric scooters, gas-powered scooters, scooters and bicycles with various types of carrying contraptions, and more people per scooter than you might think safe. In general, Chinese automobile drivers consider the traffic lights as suggestions. Scooter drivers don’t even take the hint. So even if you have a green walking sign facing you, you must stay vigilant, especially for scooters. I admit to some scooter-envy – there were some pretty cool ones. Different than in the US, there were a few two-strokes out and about. You could smell them as well as hear them. I am sure their constant-loss oiling systems don’t help the pollution, even though I loved two-stroke motorcycles when I was growing up. (By the way, our ship’s huge engine is a two-stroke, but there is absolutely no comparison. A post on the engine will happen sooner or later.)
I spent some time on side streets, but took few photos, because the shops had vendors in front, the people were doing their laundry, and I felt a bit like an intruder. I did find a shop at which I bought toothpaste – easy to ask for with the simplest of motions! The juxtaposition of Nanjing street with its high-end stores, and poor tiny-room shops only tens of feet away, on side streets, was immense. There seemed to be no middle ground. (I found a “middle ground” later, but across the river.)
I walked up and down the Bund for a while, quite nice. Lots of good photo ops for buildings across the river. It was crowded, I expected that, but not anywhere near as crowded as on a summer night in 2004 when I had a sense of claustrophobia. Much nicer for me in 2016. There was a long garden wall, with flowers in tiny planters making art with their organized colors. A photo is better than that description, look for it. I repeated some photos I took in 2004, of the Mao statue and things like that. The tall building skyline had certainly changed. In 2004 the Pearl Tower, a huge post with balls midway and on top, was the tallest thing around. We took photos from its observation deck. A few buildings now look down upon the Pearl Tower, but the old Pearl still looks unique. So many people had selfie sticks, taking photos of themselves with the tall buildings in the background. Selfie sticks were not around in 2004.
Just off the Bund there were cafes with outside seating. Not quite as nice as those that used to be on Nanjing road facing pedestrians, as these ones faced a street, but still nice. I grabbed a bite there. There was a scooter parked, and locked to a post, on the sidewalk. The only one on the sidewalk. After a parked car left, I watched a security guard come over and move the scooter by dragging it over the curb, almost spilling it off its kickstand, but getting it totally into a parking spot on the road, next to the curb, still tied with its lock to the pole. I grinned at him as he was leaving it, and he chuckled, patted his hands together as if to say “there, that’s cleaned up”, and went on his way. Sidewalk clean again. No ticket. I would have felt really bad if he had dropped it – I could have helped him but chose not to get involved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that happen in the US.
You can cross the river by underground walkway, or you can take the ferry, which I did. 5 RMB (less than a buck). The ferry seemed the same as it did in 2004, quite fun, with quick approach to the dock, almost scary. I think he’s done it a few thousand times. Non-existent crowd control. In China the “control” part of “crowd control” is not the correct word – I’ll keep thinking to see if I can come up with the correct word.
Across the river, and all of a sudden it’s a totally different feel. Early 20th century on that side, 21st century on this side. There are wide modern streets, less scooters and bikes and more cars and buses. Less of a walking sort of place, although walking was not out of the question. Being closer to the buildings, some of them were hidden from view, exposing themselves as you walk in one direction or another.
The tallest tower is just called the Shanghai Tower. I am not sure if it is completed yet. The outside looked complete. I am pretty sure that it is second in the world, at around 2000 feet. (There’s a 2700-foot tower in the Middle East somewhere, the winner!)
Perspective assist: I think I have this right: We climb about 4000 feet from the Colorado River up to the South Rim (~2400 to ~6400), for those of you familiar with the hike from Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon. So if we put this tower on the banks of the river it would rise above the Inner Basin, slightly above the Tonto Plateau.
The Shanghai Tower was very impressive. Looking at it from across the river, from several different views nearer to it, and a little bit from a neighboring tower, I never quite felt that I got the “whole thing” in my head. I think that’s an architectural accomplishment. It looked to me like a very tall cylinder, that you only barely get a hint of because you only get glimpses of the “inner cylinder” from various views. Around this cylinder it looked as if it were wrapped with a thick blanket. There is a crease going all the way up, spiraling around it. And the walls, on the way up, are not straight. Each view of it denied you the sense that you were looking at something going straight up. I walked all the way around it, trying to get to go up in it. All the entrances were closed, with guards. I don’t know if it was specially closed that day or just not ready yet. Having absolutely no skills in that area, I decided against climbing it. When I was leaving Shanghai later that evening, from the taxi, I noticed that there were not so many lights on in that building, compared with the other tall buildings. I concluded, to myself at least, that it was as yet unoccupied.
Besides the Oriental Pearl Tower that I already mentioned, the other two truly tall buildings are the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. All four buildings look totally different from one another, all interesting. The Shanghai World Financial Center was the next tallest, and had an observatory tour, so I went on up.
The Shanghai World Financial Center starts semi-square at the bottom, then two sides lean in until they meet at the top. There are a couple creases at the right places. At the top there is a cutout section. And it twists a little bit on the way up. So it looked like the tallest, skinniest bag with a handle that you’ve ever seen. I am sure the designers have a description that they prefer to mine! The simplified models of it, available at shops as keychains, clocks, pins, etc. etc., unfortunately to me all looked like beer bottle openers. It really does look a lot more impressive than my descriptions.
On the way to the elevators there was a cool little room in which someone had made a scale model of, basically, downtown Shanghai, with all the towers, all the buildings, both sides of the river, with lights that could be turned on and off. It was in a dark room, so my pics didn’t come out as well as I wanted, but I was impressed by the modeling.
Up we went in a fast elevator, ears feeling it, the height we’re achieving constantly updated above the elevator door. To the 94th floor, some shops, then an escalator to the 97th floor. Pretty high up. We looked down at the Jin Mao Tower, the other tall one, and the Pearl Tower. The Shanghai Tower was to our side, and we never got a good look at it. The view of Shanghai was amazing. Even with the haze there were so many buildings to see, and you could see the river winding around.
We were in a long narrow room that is the bottom of the cutout section. So then we took another elevator, this time to the 100th floor. That’s a long narrow room that is the top of the cutout section. The views from 3 more stories up were slightly different but mostly the same: Awesome. But for one major difference. Since we were at the top of the cutout looking down, they made part of the floor out of glass. So you could see straight down. There are a couple of lines of about 2 feet wide, maybe 30 or 40 feet long, of those glass sections. I think they made a good choice. It is eerie enough looking down through your feet, maybe 1600 feet down or so. I am sure they could have made the whole floor of mostly glass, and would have scared too many people. Even as it was, there were several people who would simply not go near the glass portions. I can understand that. ‘Twas quite fun, though, looking down like that. In the absolutely largest bottle opener in the world.
It’s a shame there can’t be many “#1’s”. But that doesn’t mean that, like some little kids’ ball games, everybody should get a “participation award”. Having said that, though, this building proudly stated their winnings, even though there had to be dates attached. 2008: World’s Tallest Building in the categories “highest occupied floor” and “height to top of roof”. 2009: “highest observation deck”. Not bad at all. It was fun to be up there. I would still give them “world’s biggest bottle opener”. We’d have to get a big enough bottle to prove the claim though – that might be a challenge.
Back down the elevator to the bottom of the Shanghai World Financial Center. I had a nice latte at a coffee shop. It was now late afternoon. Some office workers, looking like office workers the world over with ID badges hanging from neck halyards, ties loosened, ordered to-go stuff to take back upstairs.
Outside I found quite a difference from 2004. At that time this area was under construction. The Jin Mao Tower and the Pearl Tower were complete, but the Shanghai World Financial Center was under construction, half as tall as the completed version, and the Shanghai Tower was not there at all. Now, in addition to these buildings and more, there was an additional mall, and a great elevated walking space. Not quite as lush as the Highline Walk in New York City, but still pretty nice, and very convenient to get people around between all these buildings, and the shopping malls, without having to cross busy streets. I don’t remember any of that walkway in 2004.
I went into two malls. One was a repeat of Singapore casino and Nanjing street. There must be buyers, else they wouldn’t make a copy of these stores just across the river from each other. It is fine that I don’t understand it. Just a drop in the ocean of my lack of understanding, tee hee. There were some more ordinary malls, which helped me to feel better about the place. After all, those office workers I saw aren’t wearing Rolex and Prada to work. I apologize to Rolex and Prada. I don’t have anything against them. I keep using them because I remember the names. Congratulations to them, they have infiltrated my brain!
I left the mall area, walked back down by the river. It isn’t developed the same as the Bund. There were condos there, some sidewalks, but the public by-the-river place is the Bund for sure. It had already gotten dark, so I had some pizza and Chianti (sacrilege! not Chinese!), very comforting I admit, and set off with my Chinese instructions, written by my agent, to find a taxi back to the docks. It was a long drive, through a long tunnel and on out of town. It is interesting how much trust we put in taxi drivers, in a foreign land, without a clue as to whether we are on the right track, and without language skills to ask any questions. It’s not scary, it just is. My taxi driver was fine, better than fine. He waited for me for many minutes as I cleared the gate security.
Bye bye to Shanghai. We will visit here again before heading east. I might try going out again, not sure. I wouldn’t just repeat this visit, I’d try to find something else to see, maybe just something around the port area. It is always fun to just walk around, if I am allowed to do so.
